Fresh
beef back on Wed Dec 4th

If you would
like some of the Angus cross, born and reared at Garr House, which
will have been hung for over 3 weeks, let me know by 6pm Sunday. Mini Boxes
available: £50 worth of beef, a mix of joints, mince, casserole beef
and steak and burgers / sausages available for £45. Please contact me
to discuss what you would like.

Christmas
order deadlines.

There will be frozen stocks
available but if you would like to order anything specific for Christmas
then :Sunday 1st
December
Final orders for Lamb, Beef & Ham.

It has been
a good apple harvest and we have three different desert apple
varieties juiced. All apples are local and the 1l bottles of pure apple juice are £4. A
Bramley blend will be added to the list shortly.

The honey is from bees foraging mainly in Peldon and Wigborough
and available in two sizes priced £3:50 and £4.

The Quince Jelly has been made from our Quinces, it
is a very sweet accompaniment to any meat or good simply spread on
toast and priced at £2:50 per pot.

The
herd is in !

The suckler beef herd consisting of 18 hopefully, in calf cows and
heifers plus their calves from this year and some from the 2012
calving, making 42 in total, were brought indoors for winter before
it got too wet and they poached the fields with their high ground
pressure hooves. They need to be brought in when they are dry or they
can be susceptible to pneumonia. If they are kept out in harsh
conditions, they adapt by growing longer hair, the problem with this
is that they then get too hot when indoors and so need shaving to
keep cool. Usually a strip either side of the spine is enough. So,
the cattle are in whilst the sheep, sporting their sheepskin coats
and lighter body weight so a reduced tendency to mess up the ground,
are still outside.The lambs
still tuck into silage in ring feeders. Though there is plenty of
grass about its nutritional value is declining. The worms have also
had a last hurrah before the cold weather sets in and we have wormed
the lambs again; hopefully for the last time before they come indoors.This ageing
Suffolk ram is dressed for action sporting a blue raddle crayon. 17
days later ( one cycle ) and all ewes were marked except 3 and the
worn out crayon changed to red so we will know which ewes are later
lambing or didn't hold to the first service. Two garage
doors, four trees and according to Phil 'the most troublesome pig on
the farm' were all wind damage casualties a month ago.
Surprisingly we did not lose electricity and after coming in for a
paint job the pig sign has been returned to duty.No
newsletter would be complete without a mention of concreting activity
....... apparently one should admire the smooth finish on the poured
concrete wall which has been revealed after the removal of the
shuttering.A concrete
crushing machine was hired in to convert the heap of rubble produced
when a roadway was repaired ( those of you sad enough can refer back
to issue 35, June 2013 found in the newsletter section at
www.garrhousefarm.co.uk ). The planned one day hire turned into a
frustrating two days due to frequent blockages, fortunately there was
no charge for the extra day as there was some issue about belt
adjustment after an over haul of the machine - or may be it was the
tone of Phil's voice having worked with the noisy machine for longer
than expected. Anyway, rubble tipped in the top has produced hills of
hardcore having passed through vibrating metal teeth
................. shown below with the right side which vibrates and
the left side is static.In the end
we had several people stop in response to the roadside advert for a
farm apprentice. Unexpectedly there were three delivery drivers
wanting a change of career along with a couple of others above the 26
year old cut off age for an apprentice. 17 year old Jamie starts on
Monday, December isn't the best month to be starting a
basically outdoor career but he is keen and hopefully the weather
will be kind for a few more weeks.